Questioning - “Questions may be the most powerful technology we have ever created. Questions and questioning allow us to make sense of a confusing world. They are the tools that lead to insight and understanding.” How can educators ask better questions or better yet, get the students to effectively ask others and themselves questions?
“My mother made me a scientist without ever intending it. Every other Jewish mother in Brooklyn would ask her child after school: “So? Did you learn anything today?” But not my mother. She always asked me a different question. “Izzy,” she would say, “did you ask a good question today?” That difference--asking good questions-- made me become a scientist!” - Isidor I. Rabi
“Once you have learned how to ask relevant and appropriate questions, you have learned how to learn and no one can keep you from learning whatever you want or need to know.” - Neil Postman & Charles Weingartner
“The scientific mind does not so much provide the right answers as ask the right questions.” - Claude Lévi-Strauss
“Questions are places in your mind where answers fit. If you haven’t asked the question, the answer has nowhere to go. It hits your mind and bounces right off. You have to ask the question – you have to want to know – in order to open up the space for the answer to fit.” Clayton Christensen via Jason Fried
"Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers." - Voltaire
“Questions may be the most powerful technology we have ever created. Questions and questioning allow us to make sense of a confusing world. They are the tools that lead to insight and understanding.” - Jamie McKenzie
“Perplexity is the goal of engagement … What matters most is the question, ‘Is the student perplexed?’ Our goal is to induce in the student a perplexed, curious state, a question in her head that math can help answer.”- Dan Meyer
“If I had an hour to solve a problem and my life depended on the solution, I would spend the first 55 minutes determining the proper question to ask… for once I know the proper question, I could solve the problem in less than five minutes.” - Albert Einstein
Answers v Questions
(Teacher Questions v Student Questions)
Teacher Questions
Asking students questions, especially higher order questions that require a bit of wait time can be an excellent form of formative evaluation
Asking students higher order questions can be a way to stretch their thinking or push them to think in new ways
Student Questions
Asking students to use what they know to write their own questions can also be an excellent form of formative evaluation
Asking students to consider what they are confused by, what they wonder, what they think they are missing, etc. can be an even better form of formative evaluation
Exit Tickets (can be done via Google forms or with other electronic tools such as Formative)
Students pose a clarifying question about something that confuses them
Students pose an "I wonder ..." question
Students pose a probing question
Students suggest a question that might appear on a quiz
Commenting - Instead of asking students to suggest improvements or additions when critiquing each others' work, have them turn their critiques into clarifying questions, probing questions (considering alternatives, I Wonder ..., or other Socratic prompts), etc.
Note Taking / Research - Have students post a non-recall question or questions after summarizing a resource (or use two column notes)
Teach students to ask clarifying and probing questions in class and when commenting online. Question Types and Socratic prompts (see below) can help here.
1 Minute, 5 Minute and Dinner Questions
Dinner Questions - Send a puzzling/messy/interesting question home as a "Dinner question." Use twitter, blog, etc. to send directly to parents too. Ask the students what further questions this raised at home.
End all experiments, research projects, lessons with a new list of questions worth considering, "Now that I know ... I wonder ..." The new unanswered questions are as important as the answered questions.
Questioning Workshop - Joliet
Workshop Description
Questioning - “Questions may be the most powerful technology we have ever created. Questions and questioning allow us to make sense of a confusing world. They are the tools that lead to insight and understanding.” How can educators ask better questions or better yet, get the students to effectively ask others and themselves questions?Agenda
Slideshow
Resources
Table of Contents
Questioning
Why Questioning?
Answers v Questions
(Teacher Questions v Student Questions)The Reality Of The Classroom
Question Classification
Essential Questions
Reflective Questioning
Inquiry Projects
Socratic Questioning
Mini Integration Ideas
Integration Ideas
Related Links
The people who change the world aren’t the people who ask the questions, but those who question the answers. - Ann Brown (Is this an accurate quote?)